Hong Kong security czar blasts pro-democracy political cartoonist over funding hoax

Hong Kong security czar Chris Tang has hit out at political cartoonist Zunzi after he published a comic strip that targeted a police request for better surveillance equipment.

In the latest in a series of official comments targeting Zunzi’s comic strip, Tang said the strip “made misleading accusations and stirred public discontent with the government,” an allegation that could fall within the purview of a draconian security law. which prohibits public criticism of authorities.

In the comic strip published in the Ming Pao newspaper, two government officials discuss the implications of a recent request from the city police for HK$5.2 billion to establish a digital media platform to collect videos and images collected by officers on phones and body cameras.

Better surveillance equipment would lead to more arrests and the need to hire more judges and build more prisons, meaning the bill would likely be closer to HK$20bn, the cartoon figures conclude.

Zunzi has also targeted the Hong Kong government global talent recruitment campaignjoking that “applicants who agree to harsh rule will be given priority, prompting the police force to write an angry letter to the Ming Pao, while a strip depicting political censorship was criticized by cultural officials as “smearing meaningless” to the authorities.

Tang said the cartoon had made “misleading allegations against the government” more than once in the past six months, drawing criticism from other officials, according to a report by government broadcaster RTHK.

Arrests and prosecution similar public denunciations by Chinese Communist Party-backed officials or media organizations have followed in several previous cases under the national security law, including those of three activists with Student Politicism.

In August 2021, Hong Kong’s largest teachers’ union announced that it would dissolve after being reported in the newspaper of the Communist Party on village newspaper.

Huang Jijun, 68, who has published a paper related to the June 4, 1989 bloodshed under the pseudonym Zunzi and has cartoons in each issue of the now closed pro-democracy apple diary newspaper for 26 years, has previously said plans to stay in Hong Kong despite a citywide crackdown on public dissent under a draconian national security law imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party effective July 1, 2020.

Consequences of the national security law

Tang’s comments came as a US Congressional report accused the Hong Kong government of continuing to use “national security” as a pretext to arrest and prosecute anyone in the pro-democracy camp and to suppress dissenting views.

“The People’s Republic of China continues to erode Hong Kong’s judicial independence and rule of law,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a March 31 statement. “(The) authorities have further criminalized dissent, undermining the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people in Hong Kong and dismantling the city’s promised autonomy.”

According to the report, the Hong Kong government has persisted in enforcing the national security law, while making use of a colonial era sedition law to silence perceived critics.

He said more than 1,200 people have been detained for their political beliefs, according to media reports, many of whom remain in pretrial detention.

“We urge the (Chinese) authorities to restore Hong Kongers’ protected rights and freedoms, release those wrongfully detained or imprisoned, and respect the rule of law and human rights in Hong Kong,” Blinken said.

Hong Kong’s Justice Secretary Paul Lam called the report “nonsense”.

“Those who were actually arrested or convicted were inciting others… to undermine social and national stability,” Lam said. “This isn’t just talk, this is incitement: encouraging others to agree with your way of thinking and change theirs, and engaging in socially destructive actions. These are not just academic discussions.”

“This statement is absolutely full of lies,” Lam said.

Crime of ‘incitement’

Executive director of the US-based Hong Kong Council for Democracy Anna Kwok said the group has counted 1,415 political prisoners in Hong Kong since the national security law came into force, citing the ongoing trial of 47 former opposition politicians and democracy activists for “subversion” under the national security law after they participated in a democratic primary in the summer of 2020.

“The Hong Kong government constantly criminalizes speech and overinterprets the past speech of various people,” he said. “They twist people’s words into evidence and use it against them in court.”

Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said all arrests made under the law, and under colonial-era sedition law, have been unfair.

“Countless people have had their passports confiscated for no reason after helping the police with their investigations,” Hui said. “This has had a huge impact on his personal freedom.”

“The crime of incitement is definitely used to attack political opinions,” he said.

The Hong Kong Politics Act report says authorities continue to arrest and prosecute people for peacefully criticizing the government, “including for posting and forwarding social media posts.”

“The Hong Kong authorities continued to restrict political expression in schools and universities, imposing ‘national security education’ on all publicly funded institutions, and penalizing professors and scholars who expressed dissenting views,” the report said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.